רְאֵה, אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם–הַיּוֹם: בְּרָכָה, וּקְלָלָה.
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse

Just before the Israelites entered the land of Yisrael, G-d revealed that the promised land is under our control, BUT, it is our choice and responsibility to connect to all the benefits that this land holds for us.

The first verse of the parasha declares the choices, the second tells us how to connect to the blessing " the blessing , if you shall listen to the… " and the third verse " and the curse , if you shall not listen to… ". You see immediately that the curse comes if you do not follow the system.

You loose the race if you stop running; you lose the business or job if you don\’t work it. You won\’t walk out the window because it is the fastest way to the street. If we try out this stunt and fall of the window, it is not G-d that punishes us. It is because we don\’t listen to the laws of gravity (Physics

1.1). (please read again to understand the concept).

In 12:29 " that you shall set the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal " " גְּרִזִים " and " עֵיבָל \’ , The mountain of blessing, " גְּרִזִים " has the numerical value of 260 (ten times the Tetragrammaton) also ג׳־רזים , means 3 secrets and also deeper meaning 3 lights ( רז =207= אור =Light ) that is mentioned at the end of the Parasha with the three holidays that we need to connect to the Holy Temple. T he curse, " עֵיבָל \’ is 112 and the same letters of " בילע " = swallow and refer to the darkness that exists when the light is swallowed (black color swallows all light (Physics 1.2) ).

Death swallows us (to the ground and to nothing of physical). This will change when the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 25:8) will be fulfilled and death will be swallowed for ever.

Now we come to the eating of meat that appears many times in this parashah and the kosher steak, I mentioned in the title of this article. But before that we need to understand few important points. There are 16 places in Re\’eh where the 4 words of " בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר יְקוָק " or " הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר יְקוָק ", appear 16 times (and three times in the next parasha of Shoftim). There is a lot of significance to those numbers but I want to focus on the steak (Please don\’t take it lightly as this analogy is full of Light).

The important point to understand is that, these four words represent the connection to the Light, code name " ציון־וירושלים " ( Zion and Jerusalem ); " ציון " is the point where the Light is offering an open connection to us. " ירושלים " is the vessel or the place of connection.

The Torah commentator, Baal Haturim, reveals that " אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם " as in the first appearance of the verse (12:5) has the numerical value in " את־בש " of " ירושלים ", Jerusalem , and " מָּקוֹם " has numerical value of " לציון ", "to Zion ".

When we examine the word " מָּקוֹם " we find the word " קו " between two letters of " מ ", Built from Kaf and Vav (" כו ") =26. This letter\’s ordinal value is 13 = " אחד " = " אהבה " (x2=26), in Genesis 1:9 we find " יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶל-מָקוֹם אֶחָד " " \’ Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place ", Notice " יִקָּווּ " and " מָקוֹם אֶחָד " " one place " and this is the point of " אבן־השתיה ", "The Drinking Stone", where the whole process of creation began.

This is where the Light flows to the world. This is where physicality began to form. The verse continues " וְתֵרָאֶה, הַיַּבָּשָׁה " " and let the dry land appear ". The word " יִקָּווּ \’ has the word " קו " and " י " and " ו " from both sides. Together they have numerical value of 16 and they represent the two letters of the Tetragrammaton of the Male energy, the flow of Light. The word " קו ", means line.

The Holy Ari explains in the book "Tree Of Life" that to create the physical world G-d restricted himself in a middle point and created a void, a space by distancing himself from it. After that the Light of Endless, " אור־אין־סוף ", drew a line from the endless through the space to the middle point and with that light he created the all the worlds.

Rabbi Ashlag of blessed memory, teaches the Tree of Life of the Ari, in his writings of " תלמוד־עשר־ספירות ", The "Study of The Ten Sefirot".

As we have learned and as I have explained in my previous commentaries, the connection and revealing of the Light is by pushing it back. When we want to view an object, we point a light to it and we see it when the light reflects back. If it is a black object, it swallows the light. We can see a black object only when light reflects from its surroundings.

When we come to the place " הַמָּקוֹם ", which is the Holy Temple , we bring offerings of physical matters to reveal the light and get the blessings.

Eating is an important process of connecting to the Light. When we eat, we burn the food in our body and transform it into energy. Like the Kohen in the Holy Temple used to do with the sacrifices. The Torah teaches us which animals are good for our connection and which ones are not.

The blessing over the food is important because it guarantees a proper transformation of physical to Light. The Numerical value of " הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר יְקוָק " is 912 + 1 (for the Kolel) = 913 = " בְּרֵאשִׁית \’ "Bereshit", the First word of the Torah and representation of the seed of creation.

When we eat a kosher food, we transform the physical to good energy of upper levels, drawn from the good side of the Tree of Good and Bad. Non Kosher, connects us to physicality and the lower forces.

Non Kosher could be very good physically, but not spiritually.

We are warned to disconnect from the blood of the animal, because it holds the animal\’s soul and negativity.

Rabbi Avraham Azulai in the book " מעשה־חושב ", expands on the meditation of the Ari, about the eating and blessings of the food.

The 32 teeth related to the 32 paths of wisdom (Chokmah). We meditate on the letter Alef " א ", that is built from " י " at the top, " ו " in the middle and " י " at the bottom. When we take the " ו " and split it in the middle (lengthwise), we have " יו " on top and " וי " at the bottom like the 16 teeth on top and 16 on the bottom.

When we chew the food we reveal its light and then we can swallow it. It is hard to remember the whole meditation and to apply it each time we eat but understanding the process and having it in our consciousness, help us connect better.

That is why a kosher steak is good for you.

For the people that wait for Mashiach to come in order to enjoy Steak with Cheese or a good Lobster tail in butter, here is why it will be okay then (only then) to eat any kind of meat/food without restriction.

In short, we are now in the space created for us to reveal the Light; we need to connect to the light of Ein Sof, through the line given to us " הַמָּקוֹם ".

It is done by our actions (doing the Mitzvoth).

At the time of Mashiach, the whole space will be filled with Light, (Isaiah 30:26) " וְהָיָה אוֹר-הַלְּבָנָה, כְּאוֹר הַחַמָּה " " Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun ". .. The Moon will have the light like the Sun.

The line from Ein Sof will expand to fill up the whole space. There will be unity of upper and lower (Zecharia 14:9)
" וְהָיָה יְקוָק לְמֶלֶךְ, עַל-כָּל-הָאָרֶץ; בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִהְיֶה יְקוָק אֶחָד–וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד "
" And the LORD shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the LORD be One, and His name one ".

When the final redemption comes to happen, there will be no need to work and reveal light because the light will already be here. We can then enjoy all physical pleasures.

Until then we need to work hard to reveal the light. Help each other, Give, Share, Sacrifice, Pray and Chew the steak (No butter on top!) before swallowing it.

The harder we work, the faster we will merit seeing Mashiach. Today, Amen.